Writing/Grammar Tips
Prepared by: Dr. Winston Isaac, PhD, CHE
School of Health Services Management
Practicum
Writing Tips – random notes
Common Writing Mistakes
Writing English may be different from speaking English
“Its” versus “it’s”:
“Its” is used in the possessive case
e.g. The cat licked its paws
“It’s” is the contracted for of “it is”
e.g. It’s the right thing to do
Note: “It’s” (for “it is”) should not be used in academic writing
Compound words and the dash:
e.g. Thirty-three NOT thirty three (when donating a numbers)
Exception: it is OK to say thirty three-letter words
30 months vs 30-month period
Coupling:
Either/or
Example: Based on the state of you paper, you will either get an incomplete grade or a failure grade
Neither/nor
Example: Based on the state of your performance, you will neither get a pass nor an incomplete grade
Different from
Similar to
Unacceptable practices:
Unacceptable phrase for opening sentences:
“that is” or its short form i.e.
It should be used for clarifying rather than introducing
Same goes for “For example” or its short form, e.g.
Tense following “if”
If I were given to choose
No Dangling participles:
Ending sentences with - in, with
e.g “Words with which to open a sentence” vs “words that you open sentence with”
Pleural words vs possessive tense
Boy ----boys – pleural; while boy’s is possessive tense
Faulty agreements – a verb should always agree in number with its subject
Example: The increase in the fares for students was expected
Singular indefinite pronouns: anyone, each, everybody, everyone, neither, nobody, no one, none
Collective nouns: family, government, committee, minority, herd, army (usually singular until joined
together)
Faulty pronoun agreement: a pronoun should agree in number and person with the noun to which it refers:
Examples: If a student needs more information, he/she should ask at the office
If students need more information, they should ask at the office
Squinting modifiers: a squinting modifier creates ambiguity by seeming to look two or more ways at
once:
Example: She delivered a talk about her trip to the Arctic, which was long and colourful
Vs
She delivered a long, colourful talk about her trip to the Arctic
BASIC PRINCIPLES OF PUNCTUATION
Use a comma between two independent clauses linked by a coordinating conjunction – and, but, for, nor,
or so, still, yet
Example: He wore his heavy scarf, and his coat came down to his knees
Use commas to link terms in a series
Example: She bought a cat, a geranium, a bicycle, and a catamaran
Use commas to mark an interruption (which often provides additional but inessential information). The
rule – two commas or none
Example: His request which is reasonable, will be granted.
Use parentheses to make a somewhat more pronounced interruption than commas (The interruption may
again provide additional but inessential information)
Example: My aunt (my mother’s older sister) owns twelve beauty parlors.
Use a dash to make an even more pronounced interruption than commas or parentheses, and to stress a
word or phrase.
Example: He got what he deserved – a failed grade
Use a semicolon to link closely related independent clauses.
Example: Her future looks promising; she has been asked to submit her resume for the senior analyst
position
Use a colon to introduce a series, an important clarifying detail, or for a formal introduction to a direct
quotation.
Examples: The results of the poll are: ten in favour, eight opposed and two “don’t knows”
She was ruled by a single ambition: to get the BHA degree
Jane confirms our feeling about the School of HSM: “It provides excellent healthcare management
preparation”.
Add an apostrophe followed by “s” to form the possessive singular of nouns
Add an apostrophe, with no following “s” to form the possessive pleural of most nouns – students’ final
reports
Add an apostrophe followed by “s” to form the possessive case for indefinite pronouns:
One’s; anybody’s, someone else’s
Others:
Watch out for run-on sentences. When in doubt use shorter sentences
Use adverbs and adjectives sparingly:
“significant”, “major”, “interesting”, “rather”, “very”, “extremely”, “impressively”,
Use plain English
Watch the length of paragraphs
Flow
Proper use of : although, but, by contrast, however, nevertheless, on the other hand (to show contrast)
Use the right word – “concept” vs “conception”; affect vs effect;
Understand the words you use
“The reason is because…….” - NO …The reason is that
RULES ABOUT RECOMMENDATIONS:
They must be clear and crisp
It is OK to have an enhancement following each recommendation but they must not go on forever
Use numbers or bullet points (preferably numbers)
They must come from the study or supported by the literature
Categories of recommendations are OK
REFERENCING: Using APA . Refer to Publication Manual of the American Psychological
Association
Opening a sentence with Author’s name or referencing the author within the sentence, place the year of
the work in parenthesis….
Make sure spelling of authors’ names is consistent (in the body of the document and in the References
Proper use of “et al.”; first you reference the full list of authors (of the same article) and in subsequent
references in the body of the document, you use the first author’s name followed by et al. (there is a
period after al).